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Stop the Week: Last word...

Ulrich Inderbinen, who has died in Zermatt aged 103, was almost certainly the oldest active mountain guide in the world. He climbed the Matterhorn for the last time before his 90th birthday.

His uncle was a well-known mountain guide and Ulrich was determined to follow in his footsteps. The problem was, he had never climbed a mountain in his life. In September 1921 he put this right by climbing the Matterhorn with his 19-year-old sister, Martha, and two friends. “None of us knew what we were doing,” he recalled. “The girls wore ground-length skirts and their everyday shoes.”

He was a familiar figure in Zermatt. At the age of 95 he was spotted carrying two enormous pairs of skis slowly down the main street. “The second pair?” he said. “They’re for my father. He’s coming on behind me.”